Accountability

Contemporary Studies
Accountability involves either the expectation or assumption of account-giving behavior.
The study of account giving as a sociological act was articulated in a 1968 article on
"Accounts" by Marvin Scott and Stanford Lyman, although it can be traced as well to J.
L. Austin's 1956 essay "A Plea for Excuses", in which he used excuse-making as an
example of speech acts.
Communications scholars have extended this work through the examination of strategic
uses of excuses, justifications, rationalizations, apologies and other forms of account
giving behavior by individuals and corporations, and Philip Tetlock and his colleagues
have applied experimental design techniques to explore how individuals behave under
various scenarios and situations that demand accountability.
Recently, accountability has become an important topic in the discussion about the
legitimacy of international institutions. Because there is no global democratically elected
body to which organizations must account, global organizations from all sectors bodies
are often criticized as having large accountability gaps. The Charter 99 for Global
Democracy, spearheaded by the One World Trust, first proposed that cross-sector
principles of accountability be researched and observed by institutions that affect
people, independent of their legal status. One paradigmatic problem arising in the global
context is that of institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund who are founded and supported by wealthy nations or individuals and provide
grants and loans, to developing nations. Should those institutions be accountable to
their founders and investors or to the persons and nations they lend money to? In the
debate over global justice and its distributional consequences, Cosmopolitans tend to
advocate greater accountability to the disregarded interests of traditionally marginalized
populations and developing nations. On the other hand, those in the Nationalism and
Society of States traditions deny the tenets of moral universalism and argue that
beneficiaries of global development initiatives have no substantive entitlement to call
international institutions to account. The One World Trust Global Accountability Report,
published in a first full cycle 2006 to 2008, is one attempt to measure the capability of
global organizations to be accountable to their stakeholders.
Accountability In Education
Student accountability is traditionally based on hang school and classroom rules,
combined with sanctions for infringement. As defined by National Council on
Measurement in Education (NCME), accountability is "A program, often legislated, that
attributes the responsibility for student learning to teachers, school administrators,
and/or students. Test results typically are used to judge accountability, and often
consequences are imposed for shortcomings."
In contrast, some educational establishments such as Sudbury schools believe that
students are personally responsible for their acts, and that traditional schools do not
permit students to choose their course of action fully; they do not permit students to
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